How to get Sky Sports for the least amount of money on every TV and streaming platform.

Sky Sports is back for the 2018/19 season with 128 Premier League games. With the launch of individual sports channels on Sky TV, it's never been easier to watch or stream Sky Sports live.

Whether you're a Sky TV subscriber, you're getting your TV from Virgin Media, BT or TalkTalk or you're streaming Premier League games - or you're not bothered about live football at all - we've rounded up the cheapest and easiest ways to get Sky Sports in SD, HD and even 4k Ultra HD.

How much is...

How much is Sky Sports? A note on prices

Note that prices listed here are standard prices, without any offers, freebies or introductory rates.

Introductory rates can last for part of or all of the initial contract you sign with a provider, after which, when you come to sign up again, you'll be charged at the normal standard rate.

Because these are subject to change, either during the lifetime of the contract or whenever a provider decides to end them, we don't list them here - we go in to the smallprint so you don't have to.

For this reason, prices you'll see elsewhere online might appear cheaper and if you can get a cheaper deal that what we're quoting for the first 12 or 18 months, then great - but note that those prices will increase in future.

Alternatively, you can take two Sky Sports channels for £22/month, three for £26/month, or all seven channels, plus the Sky Sports Main Event roundup channel, for £28/month.

There's no limit to how long you need to subscribe to these channels. You sign up on a rolling monthly basis, meaning you can cancel Sky Sports in the off-season months, if you wish.

Alternatively, if you commit to taking Sky Sports for 18 months, you can get every channel for £20/month instead - £2 more than just going for one channel, though you lose the flexibility of being able to cancel Sky Sports Premier League in the off season months.

How much is Sky Sports in HD on Sky TV?

If you take, one, two or three Sky Sports channels, you'll need to pay an extra £6/month to get Sky Sports channel in HD. Here's how everything adds up:

How many games can I record on Sky Q?

The Sky Q 1TB box has eight tuners, which let you record up to three programmes at once while watching a fourth and support streams on up to one other tablet or on a Sky Q Mini set-top box elsewhere in the home.

The Sky Q 2TB set-top box (originally called the Sky Q Silver box) comes with a 2TB hard drive, 1.7TB is ringfenced for your use: this equates to 1,000 hours of SD recordings and 350 hours of HD recordings. There's no official word from Sky on how much 4k content can be recorded. The 12 tuners of the Sky Q 2TB box let you record up to six programmes at once and watch a fifth and support streams on up to two tablets and two Sky Q Mini boxes.

Both Sky Q set-top boxes have the ability to stream content to another TV set via a Sky Q Mini box. Taking a Mini box requires you to take the £12/month Multiscreen add on with your subscription.

The first box costs an extra £40 up front, while the second one will cost £99. Sky Q Mini boxes have no hard drives or tuners of their own, but can stream content that’s recorded on the parent Sky Q box and access the same on demand and catch-up services.

The cheapest Sky Q subscription is currently the Entertainment pack, which costs £25/month as standard. Sky Sports Premier League on its own costs £18/month.

You can take this with either the standard 1TB Sky Q set-top box (record up to three programmes/games/shows at once) for £20 or get the bigger, 4k Ultra HD-ready 2TB Sky Q Silver box (record up to six broadcasts at once) for £199.

Whichever of the two Sky Q boxes you go for, the total monthly cost comes to £43/month.

The cheapest Sky Q subscription is currently the Entertainment pack, which costs £25/month as standard. Sky Sports Premier League on its own costs £18/month and to get that channel in HD, you'll need to pay an extra £6/month.

You can take this with either the basic 1TB Sky Q set-top box (record up to three broadcasts at once) for £20 or get the bigger 2TB Sky Q Silver box (record up to six games at once) for £199.

Whichever of the two Sky Q boxes you go for, the total monthly cost comes to £49/month.

The cheapest way to get Sky Sports 4k Ultra HD content is to take the Entertainment pack (£25/month) Sky Sports Premier League (£18/month) the HD premium (£6/month) and also get a Sky Q Multiscreen pass (£12/month).

As well as this, you'll need to have the 2TB Sky Q Silver set-top box (record up to six games at once), as that's currently the only Sky hardware capable of displaying 4k video.

Normally, the set up price for this is £199, but this falls to £65 with the Multiscreen pass. You'll also need to take at least one Sky Q Mini box as it’s a Multiscreen subscription, which will see the installation cost go up to at least £85 (as it's £20 per Q Mini box).

How much is Sky Sports on Virgin TV?

How much Sky Sports costs on Virgin TV depends on what other services you're buying; normally, you'll pay £31.75/month for all of the Sky Sports channels in SD, on top of whatever else you're paying for Virgin TV.

Bundles like the £100/month Full House + Sport deal come with all of the Sky Sports channels included as standard - along with the BT Sport channels as well for total Premier League coverage, plus ultrafast 200Mbps cable broadband.

While you you're not currently able to take individual Sky Sports channels (like Sky Sports Premier League) with Virgin TV, none of the Sky Sports channels are excluded from the line up.

How much is Sky Sports in HD on Virgin TV?

Unless it's included as part of a bundle, Sky Sports in HD on Virgin TV will cost an extra £7/month on top of the standard £31.75/month - so that's £38.75/month in total for Sky Sports in HD on Virgin TV.

How many games can I record on Virgin TV?

The 500GB hard drive of the Virgin Media TiVo boxes will let you store up to 250 hours of standard definition content and 50 hours of HD recordings.

The bigger 1TB drive of the Virgin TV V6 box doubles this, letting you record up to 500 hours of SD matches and 100 hours worth of HD content.

You can also stream your recordings from one Virgin TV set-top box to the other by connecting them to your router, either using Ethernet cables and/or Powerline adapters. This works with both Virgin TV boxes, meaning you can stream recordings from a V6 bot to a TiVo one, and vice versa.

Cheapest Virgin TV + Sky Sports deal: £44/month (12 month contract)

The cheapest way to get Sky Sports with Virgin Media is to take out a standalone Virgin TV package - the cheapest being Mix TV at £22/month - and add the Sky Sports channels for £31.75/month.

This gives you all of the new Sky Sports channels - including the Premier League channel - as well as Sky Sports News, Sky Sports Mix and Sky Sports Main Event.

A 500GB Virgin Media TiVo box, which lets you record up to three shows at once is included for free. Alternatively, you can add the new TV V6 box, which lets you record up to six broadcasts at once and comes with a 1TB drive, for £49.95. Whichever box you go for, there's a £20 activation fee.

Cheapest Virgin TV + Sky Sports + HD deal (12 month contract)

The cheapest way to get Sky Sports in HD is to take the same deal described above - Mix TV for £22/month plus Sky Sports for £31.75/month and add £7/month for the HD premium.

This sees you getting all of the Sky Sports channels in both standard and high definition, as well as a 500GB Virgin Media TiVo box (record up to three shows at once), which aside from a £20 connection fee, is free.

Can I order Sky Sports Premier League from Virgin Media?

In the past, Virgin TV customers were able to order single Sky Sports channels, but such offers were withdrawn on the 1st of June, 2016. You're not currently able to order individual Sky Sports channels through Virgin TV.

How much is Sky Sports with BT TV?

Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Extra can be added to BT TV packages in SD for £27.50/month.

While you can't get the new Sky Sports Premier League channel, round up channel Sky Sports Main Event includes the "the biggest and best" Premier League games. Sky Sports Extra includes "the rest of the live Premier League games available on Sky Sports, which aren't available through Sky Sports Main Event," according to BT.

Sky Sports channels are available on a rolling monthly basis from BT TV, so you can cancel during off-season months if you wish. BT TV contracts are typically 12 months long.

In order to get Sky Sports channels with BT TV, you'll need a BT Infinity Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) Internet service.

That BT Infinity line will also need to be giving you at least 30Mbps in order for you to watch and/or record Sky Sports channels at the same time on a BT TV box.

How much is Sky Sports in HD on BT TV?

Again, if you want to watch and record Sky Sports HD channels simultaneously, you'll need to be able to get a download speed of 30Mbps or above on your BT Infinity line.

How much is Sky Sports in 4k Ultra HD on BT TV?

While you can watch BT Sport Ultra HD with the top level BT TV package, you can’t currently watch any of the Sky Sports games in 4k through a BT TV set-top box.

How many games can I record on BT TV?

The 500GB drive of the BT TV Entertainment Plus set-top box lets you record up to 300 hours of SD programmes or 125 hours of HD content.

If you're taking BT TV Total Entertainment, you get a 1TB hard drive in your set-top box; this has enough room for 600 hours of SD recordings or 250 hours of HD; no official word on how much space you get for 4k Ultra HD recordings yet.

This gives you a BT TV box with a 500GB hard drive (so you can record games), over 80 digital TV channels, and up to 52Mbps download speeds, no data caps or traffic management and 80 TV channels - including all the BT Sport TV channels in SD - for £47.99/month.

Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Extra in SD costs £27.50/month.

There's also a one-off charge of £29.99 - £20 for activation and £9.99 for delivery of the BT Home Hub router.

Cheapest BT TV + Sky Sports HD: £64.99/month (12 month contract)

Take the Unlimited Infinity 1 broadband and Classic BT TV bundle.

This gives you a BT TV box with a 500GB hard drive (so you can record games), over 80 digital TV channels, and up to 52Mbps download speeds, no data caps or traffic management and 80 TV channels - including all the BT Sport TV channels in SD - for £47.99/month.

Now TV is ideal for cord cutters who don’t want to be lumbered with a lengthy pay TV contract, but want to be able to stream some (or all) of Sky’s Premier League games over an Internet connection.

Now TV is a streaming service that lets you watch from your desktop, (Windows 8+) browser (Windows, iOS, requires Silverlight), tablet, phone (iOS, Android), smart TV (LG) or games console (Xbox One and 360, PlayStation 4 and 3).

You can also pick up a Now TV Box mini streamer, which for £15 is a good choice if you don’t have (or don’t want to use) any of the above. If you’ve got a Chromecast you’re in luck too, as the Now TV mobile apps are Chromecast-compatible.

Can I stream Sky Sports in HD with Now TV?

While you won’t be able to watch live Sky Sports streams in 1080p Full HD, the highest quality you can stream games in is 720p HD.

The only platforms that don’t currently support 720p HD streams are the Now TV desktop and browser players and the iOS and Android apps - although if you cast a stream to your TV via Chromecast, you will be able to watch games in 720p HD, bandwidth permitting.

Ultimately, the quality you’ll get depends on how good your broadband connection is; Now TV’s site says you’ll need at least 2.5Mbps spare for SD streams and 5Mbps for HD streams.

How much is Sky Sports with a Now TV Combo deal?

If you want an easy way of getting Sky Sports on your TV without a traditional satellite dish set up, then a Now TV Combo might be just the ticket; you get a basic digital terrestrial TV service with streamlined access to Now TV content through the same box. ADSL and FTTC broadband can be thrown in as well.

Better still, the flexible nature of Now TV Combo deals means you can choose to drop the Sky Sports Monthly Pass subscription during those off-season months, if football’s mainly your thing.

Unfortunately for those who like to be able to record games, the Now TV Combo set-top box lacks a hard drive. If this is a dealbreaker for you, you should look elsewhere. You can also only take monthly passes with Now TV Combo, so you don’t get the flexibility of a regular Now TV subscription either.

How much is Sky Sports Mobile TV?

Sky Sports Mobile TV lets you stream a selection of Sky Sports channels live on iOS and Android devices. There’s no long-term contracts, so you can sign up for as long as you like and you don’t need to be a Sky TV customer to watch - Sky customers with Sky Sports can access the same streams via the Sky Go app.

How much is Sky Sports Mobile TV with Vodafone?

With selected Vodafone Red 4G Pay Monthly and SIM-only plans, you can choose to get Sky Sports Mobile TV Pack 1 (including Sky Sports Premier League) included for free, for as long as you stay with Vodafone.

If you're on a 24 Month plan, then you get 24 months of inclusive Sky Sports Mobile TV.

Existing customers subscribing to Sky Sports Mobile TV Pack 1 will get Pack 2 thrown in for no extra cost. Likewise, if you're already paying £10.99/month for Pack 2, then you’ll qualify for a £5/month discount.